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Weekly ForceCast: January 20, 2012
Clone Wars Supervising Director Dave Filoni joins us for the annual mid-season halftime show. Listen as Dave speaks candidly about what we've seen and what's yet to come on The Clone Wars this season and beyond. Plus, George Lucas announces his retirement and why he'd never make another Star Wars film, and we preview this Fall's hottest political issue: Barack Obama: Trekkie or Lucasian? All that and much more right here on your Weekly ForceCast. Guests *Dave Filoni Topics *Jason and Jimmy continue their conversation from last week about where Barack Obama's "Star" loyalties lie in a new installment of The Jimmy Mac Investigative Report. **Jimmy cites three pieces of evidence that he found online. First, Barack Obama bought a Star Wars book for the son of former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. Second, in a 2004 newspaper interview with Obama that asked him to choose between Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, he chose Star Wars. Third, a 2009 AP story reported that Obama wielded a lightsaber while promoting Chicago's campaign to host the 2012 Olympics. **Jason, however, does not accept the findings of Jimmy's report, and he presents a counter-report. He cites an interview where Obama says he grew up on Star Trek, a Newsweek article from the 2008 campaign that quoted Obama talking about dilithium crystals and beaming up, and Leonard Nimoy's story on NPR about Obama flashing him the Vulcan salute. "You present a very compelling counterargument," Jimmy concedes -- but Jason isn't done. He also points to a Bill Gates CES tribute video that featured Obama answering Gates' call and mistaking him for the "Bill from Star Trek". **In conclusion, Jason says that while Obama may "go both ways," his heart lies with Trek. *Billy Dee Quote of the Week **Billy Dee appeared on the comedy series Mind of Mencia to portray President Obama romancing women voters. *Headline News **In addition to discussing the live-action series, Rick McCallum also talked about other things in the IGN interview from last week. Jason plays a clip of McCallum discussing Seth Green's new Star Wars animated series. "What little I've seen of it is fantastic," McCallum tells the IGN interviewer. ***McCallum also talks about the Star Wars 3D re-releases. He cautions that, while Lucasfilm has already initiated the 3D conversion of Episode II, they're still not sure if 3D will become popular enough to warrant conversion of Episodes III-VI. ***Jason responds to this 3D skepticism by critiquing Lucasfilm's re-release strategy. He believes that Lucasfilm should have marketed these re-releases differently. He thinks the approach should have been along the lines of "We're bringing the entire saga back to the big screen for a whole new generation -- oh, and if you live near a 3D theater, you can see it in that new format." **[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/magazine/george-lucas-red-tails.html?pagewanted=all A profile of George Lucas in The New York Times] featured Lucas' announcement that he was retiring from blockbuster film-making. In the piece, Lucas addressed fan criticism, including Vader "Noooooo" backlash, and said, "Why would I make any more [Star Wars movies] when everybody yells at you all the time and says what a terrible person you are?" ***Jason gets out his soapbox to offer an impassioned defense of George Lucas. He discusses the work that Lucas put into making his movies, the reality of artistic vision and the personal nature of film-making, the way the Internet has facilitated heinous anonymous slander, and more. *Jason and Jimmy bring The Clone Wars supervising director Dave Filoni on for their annual season half-time show. Their discussion includes: **What was Filoni doodling during the meeting of The Clone Wars writers as seen in the special features of the Blu-ray set? **How descriptive do writers meetings get concerning new villains that the series plans to introduce? **What was the story behind the decision to have the Gungans capture General Grievous? **How does the Krell story arc relate to Order 66? **Was Krell a Dark Jedi, or even a Sith? Significant quotes *Quotes go here.